Placemakers T20
An unbeaten 66 from 39 balls from Ben Millar led Waimate to a seven-wicket Twenty20 win against Timaru last night.
Millar hit seven fours and two sixes and received good support from Nathan Sew Hoy (44) and Scott Willoughby (30) as Waimate chased down Timaru’s 163-9 with 12 balls to spare.
Contributions from most of the top order masked the middle and lower-order collapse which cost Timaru valuable runs in the dying overs
Timaru lost six wickets for 16 runs to finish their innings, despite Waimate dropping six catches after stand-in captain Justin Thompson won the toss and chose to bowl.
Timaru openers Srinivas KS (42) and captain Zane Sanders (32) put on 61 but both departed to catches from loopy full tosses when they had the chance to create a match-winning innings.
Logan Taylor added 25 off 14 balls but when he departed, the incoming batsmen threw away their wickets in search of boundary shots.
Waimate’s chase was composed and measured and when one big hitting batsmen left, another came in and kept the runs flowing which saw them keep up with the required run-rate of more than eight an over.
Jason Sew Hoy took two wickets for four runs from the last over of the Timaru innings but he was quickly dismissed for one.
Strangely he had been part of a 31-run opening stand thanks to his brother, Nathan, who hit five fours in the first over of the innings from Hayden Leonard.
It set the tone for the run chase.
It was the second time in two weeks Timaru had lost a match despite scoring more than 160 runs and means they will find it tough to make the final.
Temuka face the Cavaliers next Friday night at Aorangi Oval.